A wide range of medical treatments are known that utilize “endoluminal prostheses.” As used herein, endoluminal prostheses are intended to mean medical devices that are adapted for temporary or permanent implantation within a body lumen, including both naturally occurring and artificially made lumens. Examples of lumens in which endoluminal prostheses may be implanted include, without limitation: arteries, such as those located within the coronary, mesentery, peripheral, or cerebral vasculature; veins; gastrointestinal tract; biliary tract; urethra; trachea: hepatic shunts; and fallopian tubes.
Various types of endoluminal prostheses are also known, each providing a component for modifying the mechanics of the targeted luminal wall. For example, stent prostheses are known for implantation within body lumens for providing artificial radial support to the wall tissue, which forms the various lumens within the body, and often more specifically within the blood vessels of the body.
To provide radial support to a blood vessel, such as one that has been widened by a percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, commonly referred to as “angioplasty,” “PTA” or “PTCA”, a stent is implanted in conjunction with the procedure. Stents suitable for use in such procedures may be either self-expanding or balloon-expandable. Conventionally in a PTA procedure, the stent may be collapsed to an insertion diameter, either by crimping onto a balloon catheter or by being contained within a sheath component of a delivery catheter, and inserted into a body lumen at a site remote from the diseased vessel. The stent may then be conveyed to the desired treatment site within the affected lumen and deployed, either by self-expansion or by outward radial force provided by a delivery system such as a balloon catheter, to its desired diameter for treatment. The present invention is directed to an alternative type of stent prosthesis and an alternative method of delivering and deploying the stent prosthesis within a targeted body lumen.